Daniel Larimer: Delegated Proof of Stake Chains Can Be Upgraded More Easily than PoW Networks

Daniel Larimer, the Chief Technology Officer at Block.one, a Cayman Islands-headquartered firm which has raised over $4 billion in capital for various blockchain-related projects including EOS, one of the largest platforms for deploying decentralized applications (dApps), has argued that proof-of-work (PoW) chains “will become completely centralized” in the future.

Proof of work becomes completely centralized when quantum leap in computation or algo is discovered... dpos stays decentralized regardless of technological developments. You can fork dpos easily, but creating a new resistant proof of work is very difficult.

Larimer, a computer science graduate from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, claims that delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS), the distributed consensus algorithm used by the EOS platform, will remain decentralized regardless of the advancements in technology.

The former Boeing employee and developer of BitShares and Steemit also believes that DPoS can be forked easily. However, Larimer thinks it is far too difficult to establish a new PoW chain with the same network effect that Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), both of which are PoW-based platforms, have established.

Properly Designed Blockchains Enable Incentivized Free Speech?

Larimer, whose comments came via Twitter on April 14th, 2019, also noted via the microblogging platform that “speech is too valuable to be free.” He suggested that an open market be launched “where everyone can bid for an opportunity to talk and all who listen profit.”

He added that this is “what a properly designed blockchain enables.” Going on to clarify what he meant by allowing users to participate in a blockchain-based network that lets everyone speak freely, the former CTO at Steemit said that there’s a “scarcity of bandwidth” in distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based platforms. He further remarked:

Everyone should have a chance to broadcast on that channel if they pay market rates and the proceeds go to those who didn’t get to speak.

Interestingly, Larimer has proposed many new business ideas since the release of the Bitcoin whitepaper in November 2008. Before developing some of the world’s largest crypto platforms, Larimer had launched a virtual reality (VR) related startup which failed. He also worked extensively in the defense, robotics, and automation sector.

In early October 2018, Larimer had predicted that all businesses would use blockchain technology in the future. His comments regarding the future of crypto and DLT-based platforms came during a keynote speech he made at the Blockchain Live event in London (held last year). Larimer noted (at that time):

To get from where we are today to there is a matter of getting the existing businesses and existing proven business models to upgrade their software to use blockchain give users greater security....Banks lose hundreds of billions of dollars every year to fraud, either from inside or outside. The biggest use cases are actually coming from the businesses which have these huge liabilities adopting the blockchain… Then their customers are going to benefit from it automatically and transparently.